Are you a Target of a List Scam? WARNING: You Probably Are

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You might not realize it, but there are scammers out there that are focused on conference attendees and exhibitors. What do they want? They want money wires, credit card numbers, and any personal information that they can use to steal a person’s identity. One way that a scammer can get this info is by using an invitation scam or a list scam.

scamBasically, if you are a person who is registered for a conference, if you are a conference vendor, or if you are speaking at a conference, you might receive an email…or a number of emails…that invite you to attend a conference. They might also offer to sell you a list of people who will attend the conference, and their contact information. This, of course, could be beneficial for you, but it is too good to be true? It certainly is.

Lists Like These are Lies

With these scams, many people are targets, as well as associations. If you do an internet search for “Attendee List Sales Scam“, you will find a number of associations that have members and those interested in marketing to members, which are targeted by a criminal or criminals to purchase lists that don’t exist.

It may sound great to get a list like this, which will give you access to this information, including contact information for attendees. But they are all lies. On top of this, getting this info might even be illegal.

Consider this for a moment…when you sign up for a conference, did you opt-in to have your personal info shared with other people? Likely not, and that may also mean that other attendees didn’t do this, either.

To find out if a list might be legitimate, look at the policies for the conference. Do they give info to third parties? Do they sell or rent these lists? Is the company name that contacted you on the list of third-party vendors? If all of this seems legitimate, the list is probably fine…but if not, it’s a total lie.

If you believe that you are dealing with a liar, the first thing you should do is contact the Better Business Bureau online and find out if the company is legitimate, or not. If it is a scam, you can read information and reports from other people. If it is not a scam, but you are not interested in anything from them, simply mark the email as spam. If you believe you are dealing with a scammer, considering letting the association or meeting planner aware of the scam, or, don’t do anything. Instead, delete the email. In most cases, these scammers are just looking for an active email address, and if you reply or unsubscribe, they will know your email is active.

Other Conference Invitation Scams

Another type of conference scam is when attendees are told about exhibitors that don’t exist. This might push people to sign up for a conference, when in reality, those exhibitors won’t be there. In some cases, you might even find that the conference itself won’t be there! Instead, they are just fishing for your information by telling you a great exhibitor will be there.

So, if you are in this situation, the first thing to do is to start researching. First, look up the name of the person who contacted you online. See if they say who they are. Look for their LinkedIn profile, or look for reviews on them. You can also contact the venue where the conference is set to be held. Ask if the conference will be there. Before you send your fee, look to see if there is any cancellation or refund policy in place. You also should do some research about the company’s reputation. Finally, make sure that you only pay for a conference with your credit card. This way, you won’t be held liable for the fee if this is a scam. You can get your money back, and all legitimate conference companies will be very happy to take your credit card and all credit card companies will refund your money as long as you detect the fraud in short order.

Even More Scams

There are even more scams to be aware of, too. One of these is when a scammer begins to contact attendees about hotel reservations. However, once you pay, you find out it’s a scam. Typically, a scammer who does this scam contacts the attendees and explains that they are a representative for the hotel hosting the conference. They then tell you that their rates are rising quickly, or that rooms are close to selling out, so you must act quickly if you want a room. Of course, they can take all of your information over the phone, including your credit card number. Once you do this, you have just given a scammer all of the information they need to start spending.

If you are in doubt, you can contact the organizers of the trade show directly, and then ask who is booking it. If things don’t sound legitimate, you should give them the name of the company you believe is scamming you so they can pass off the information to others.

Understand Your Options

  • It is imperative that when you sign up to attend or present a conference that you only interact with the company that is running the conference.
  • If you have any doubts you can confirm with the company that the offers you are getting from the third-party are correct.
  • You also can get an official list of official vendors from the meeting planner.
  • Keep in mind that any legitimate company might have your personal info, but they won’t release that information to third parties without your permission.
  • Sometimes an exhibitor might get the mailing address of an attendee. You can opt out of this, though. It might be harmless, but that doesn’t mean all of them are.

Wi-Fi Hacking

Finally, you want to keep an eye out for Wi-Fi hacking. This common scam targets conference goers, too. When you go to a conference or a trade show, you can connect to the free Wi-Fi, right? This allows you to stay connected, and also ensures everything runs smoothly if you are running a booth. Hackers, of course, know this, so they create and set up fake networks. Once these are set up, you can connect to them without even knowing…and then they have

access to your device. They can then take your info and watch what you are doing online. Utilize a VPN to prevent any Wi-Fi intrusions.

Remember, these fake networks look very similar to real networks that might be set up by the conference. So, you always want to double check before you connect, and if you are in doubt, ask one of the organizers which one is legitimate. They can confirm the network for you.

There are always scammers out there, especially when you are going to a conference. There are simply too many opportunities for scams for them to pass this up. Fortunately, you can follow the advice above and make sure that you report any suspicious activity. Not only can this protect others, but it can stop scammers in their tracks.

Written by Robert Siciliano, CEO of Credit Parent, Head of Training & Security Awareness Expert at Protect Now, #1 Best Selling Amazon author, Media Personality & Architect of CSI Protection Certification.

Police Say Scammers Are Stealing Deposits from Homeowners

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The police in Port St. Lucie Florida have claimed that scammers are now posting homes as available for rent or purchase. You rent/purchase the home by putting a deposit down on the house, but you’re never given any keys.

The scammers are getting their victims to the property and even a tour of the house, but when it comes time to move in, the victim is left without any options. The tour aspect of the scam is important here. This legitimizes the fake agent as real.

Local realtors say that there are a few things you can look for to ensure that your money gets to the right person and you have a place to live.

If the price doesn’t feel right or the deal is too good to be true, you should be very wary. Of course, the seller or renter might also ask way too many questions or require too much information upfront, which is also indicative of a scam.

Scammers tend to post ads on Craigslist and actually use houses that are for sale. Then, they ask the victim to tour the house and the scammer provides the lockbox pin code to get inside. The question is, how do the scammers get that information?

The only way to get access to the system is if you are a real estate agent. If they aren’t stealing the agent’s information, there are seemingly endless hoops to jump through before gaining access to that piece of information.The victims are told by the Fake Agent the keycode for the lockbox which allows them entry;

  • The keycode is either told to the scammer by the real real estate agent via phone or email
  • The real estate agents email is hacked and the code lies in the hacked email somewhere.
  • The scammer poses as another real estate agent and scams the code via phone or email

Once the victim sees the place and has some trust in the scammer, the scammer can ask for a security deposit or down payment on the home. Police officers claim that scammers take your money but don’t give you the keys.

How can you make sure the listing is legitimate? If they ask you to call a number that isn’t local or send you to a website that looks off or isn’t recognizable, it’s best to double-check the information. You can call the real estate company, search the address of the property and seek other listings. Along with such, realtors do not give pin or lock-box codes to anyone for safety purposes.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Anyone Can Scam You, Even Your Folks

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You might feel pretty safe with your parents, but more and more stories are coming out about scammer parents—especially when it comes to getting into college.

By now, we have all heard of the famous faces who have gotten caught up in the college admission scandal, but they are not the only ones. Other families are also involved in the scandal, including a wealthy Chinese family who paid $6.5 million in 2017 to get their daughter admitted to Stanford. They did not pay the school, of course, but they did pay college consultant Rick Singer, who is at the center of the college admission scandal.

The Los Angeles Times broke this story, and it is unknown, at this time, if the family knew that they were doing something wrong. Neither the family nor the student, who all live in Beijing, have been charged with any crimes. Stanford has released a statement to say that it has not received any money from the student’s family (or from Singer), and it was not even aware of any of this until the Times’s story was published.

Other families associated with the college admission scandal are starting to get their days in court, including Bruce and Davina Isackson, who pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court for their involvement in the scam. They were the first to plead guilty and also the first who have said that they will fully cooperate with the investigators and testify against the other parents who are accused in the scandal.

The Isacksons are accused of paying $600,000 to ensure that their daughters were admitted into the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. The money was paid to admit both of the girls to the schools as fake athletic recruits, and it was used to pay Singer to rig the entrance exam score for one of them.

The couple did release a statement through their attorney. They expressed their regrets for their actions and stated, “Our duty as parents was to set a good example for our children, and instead we have harmed and embarrassed them by our misguided decisions.”

There are many parents involved in this scam, including 12 parents who have already agreed to plead guilty. This includes actress Felicity Huffman.

Other parents are fighting the charges, and they could be in for a rough road; the parents and coaches who are helping the investigators are full of information, and it could harm any efforts of those whom have pleaded not-guilty.

Since the scandal has hit, even former coaches are stepping up, including those at USC and the University of Texas at Austin. This also indicates that there could be more indictments coming soon.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Bitcoin Scams Up the Ying Yang

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If you are thinking of jumping onto the Bitcoin bandwagon, or any type of cryptocurrency, you have to make sure that you are watching out for scams. There are a ton of them out there, including the following:

Fake Bitcoin Exchanges

You have to use a Bitcoin exchange if you want to buy or sell Bitcoins, but not all of them are legitimate. Instead, many of them are created for the sole purpose of taking people’s money. Only use well-known exchanges.

Ponzi Schemes

Bitcoins are not exempt from Ponzi schemes, and you have to look out for these. These are like pyramid schemes, and you definitely don’t want to get caught up with this, as you will certainly lose your money.

Fake Currency

You have certainly heard of Bitcoin, but there are other cryptocurrencies on the market, too, as alternatives to Bitcoin. However, there are also fake ones. For instance, one of these, My Big Coin, was fake, yet the people behind it managed to take more than $6 million from customers.

Well-Known Scams

Bitcoin scammers also rely on old school, well-known scams to trick people. They might, for instance, send emails pretending to be the IRS or even having some type of Bitcoin sale. People fall for these scams every day. If it seems weird, like the IRS emailing about Bitcoin, it is most definitely a scam.

Malware

Malware is another associated scam with Bitcoin. Most, or all wallets are connected online, scammers can use malware to access the account and take your money. Malware can get on your computer in a number of ways, including from websites, social media sites, and even through email.

Fake News

We live in an era where online news is the most popular method to get news, but it’s also very easy to create news stories that seem totally legitimate, yet they are absolutely fake. Basically, scammers create these stories to bait victims, so always think before you start clicking.

Phishing

These Bitcoin scammers also use phishing scams to try to get money from people who are trying to buy and sell Bitcoin. These scams are often done by clicking malicious links.

It doesn’t matter if you join the Bitcoin craze or not, you can also use these tips to keep yourself safe from other scams. Here’s some final tips:

  • Always do a security scan on your laptops, computers, phones, and tablets on a regular basis.
  • Do your research before investing in any cryptocurrency website. Make sure it is trustworthy and secure.
  • Store all of your cryptocurrency in a wallet offline, which keeps it protected from scammers.
  • Always monitor all of your banking, credit card, and cryptocurrency accounts.
  • Always insist the crypto site has two step or two factor authentication.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Beware of these 4Scams

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IRS

  • The e-mail (or phone call) says you owe money; if you don’t pay it immediately, you’ll be put in jail or fined.The scammer may know the last four digits of the victim’s Social Security number.
  • Caller ID will be spoofed to look like the call is from the IRS.9D
  • The e-mail will include an IRS logo and other nuances to make it look official.
  • The scammer may also have an accomplice call the victim pretending to be a police officer.
  • The victim is scared into sending the “owed” money—which goes to the thief. Or, the thief gets the victim to reveal credit card information.
  • Another version is that the IRS owes the victim. The victim is tricked into revealing bank account information to receive the refund.
  • Know that the IRS will never contact you via e-mail or phone; will never threaten jail time, a fine or other threats like a driver’s license revocation.
  • If you owe, the IRS will send you snail mail, certified.
  • The IRS will never threaten to have you arrested.
  • If the subject line of an e-mail appears to be from the IRS, delete it.
  • If a phone call appears to be from the IRS, hang up.

Bereavement

  • Scammers scan obituaries for prey.
  • They then contact someone related to the deceased and claim something against the estate or that they’ll reveal a family secret scandal unless they’re paid.
  • If one of these scams comes your way, request written documentation of the claim.
  • Tell the sender you’ll send this documentation to the executor.
  • If you’re blackmailed, contact a lawyer.
  • Never arrange to meet the sender.

Computer Hijack

  • This may come as a phone call: A person claiming to be a Microsoft rep informs you that your computer has been hacked and he’ll fix it—or you’ll lose everything.
  • He wants to convince you to let him have remote control or “sharing” of your computer…and from there he’ll try to get your credit card number…

Investment Scam

  • Someone halfway around the world has chosen YOU to handle a large amount of money, and you’ll be paid richly for this.
  • The sender often has a foreign sounding name, but even common names are used.
  • Often, there’s some smaltzy message in the e-mail subject line like “God bless you” or “Need your help.”
  • Delete e-mails with any subject lines relating to investments, inheritances, mentions of money, princes, barristers or other nonsense.
  • If you feel compelled to open one, don’t be surprised if there are typos or that it’s poorly written. Do NOT click any links!

Robert Siciliano CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen. See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video.

Beware of Hot and Cold Reading Scams

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Many so-called psychics are frauds. But so are some auto mechanics, lenders and roofers. There’s fraud in just about all lines of work.

1SWhat we do know is this: There’s not enough evidence to refute paranormal phenomena. Nor enough to prove it beyond a doubt.

And we also know this: There exist scams involving hot and cold readings.

I could give a scam reading to a flamboyant, colorfully-dressed woman (whom I’ve known for only a minute) with big hair, lots of costume jewelry and a supersonic laugh.

I could tell her she’s attracted to quiet, analytical, detail-oriented, very serious men whose eyes well up during sappy movies. She’ll pay me $100 for my “reading” and think I’m a psychic. What she doesn’t know is that I know that people with “sanguine” temperaments are attracted to the “melancholy” temperament.

I didn’t “read” her based on psychic abilities. I “read” her based on a book about temperaments I read years ago. Some people get really good at cold readings and make money off of this.

Hot Readings

You have an appointment with a woman. You find her Facebook page (because you got enough preliminary information to achieve this). You learn all about her. You look her up on LinkedIn too.

Come appointment (reading) time, you start telling her things about herself, flooring her. Scammers can cunningly extract information via other routes as well, but the bottom line is that the crook gets information ahead of time and pretends it’s only just coming up during the reading.

Cold Readings

The information is gleaned right on the spot—via skilled observational powers. Typically the cold-reader begins broadly, such as, “You’re very sad these days,” watching the customer’s body language and facial reactions, and then making deductions based on those.

The reading is very carefully worded to cover the possibility that the deductions are wrong. The scammer might say, “A person very dear to you is no longer around,” instead of the specific, “A person very dear to you has recently died.”  All possible reasons for the “loss” are covered with the ambiguous statement.

Cold readings to a large group are a joke, because the scammer will announce something that, by the law of averages, will apply to several people in the group. He then narrows it down from there.

There may be many honest, true psychics out there (some police departments use them for missing-persons cases believing if there wasn’t some fire to this smoke).

But beware of the scammers. Don’t pay someone to tell you something about your life that’s already on Facebook or evident in your clothing and mannerisms.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

LinkedIn targeted by Scammers

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LinkedIn is a free service that allows professional people to network with each other. Often, a LinkedIn member will receive an e-mail from another LinkedIn member “inviting” them to join their network. Sometimes, the inviter is someone the recipient doesn’t know, but the recipient will link up anyways. And that’s the problem.

14DA report at www.secureworks.com says that Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit™ (CTU) researchers discovered 25 phony LinkedIn profiles.

With this particular phony network (called TG-2889), most of the intended victims live in the Middle East. The profiles are convincing, including some having over 500 connections.

Signs of Fraudulence

  • Profile photos appear on other, unrelated sites.
  • Duplicate summary profiles, some duplicated from other sites.
  • “Supporter persona” profiles use same basic template and have other similarities.

Using phony profiles, the scammers aim to lure legitimate LinkedIn users into giving up personal information that the “threat actors” can then use either against them (like getting into their bank account) or scamming their associated company out of money.

Or, as evidenced by that one-fourth of the targets work in telecommunications, the scammers may be planning on stealing data from telecommunications companies.

TG-2889 is doing a pretty good job of maintaining the fake profiles, as they regularly make revisions, continues the secureworks.com report. This suggests that a new campaign is planned, perhaps one targeting the aerospace industry, since at least one fake profile mentions Northrup Grumman.

It’s also likely that some TG-2889 profiles have not been identified, and let’s also assume that LinkedIn is tainted with even more bogus profiles from other threat actors.

For Legitimate LinkedIn Users

  • If you suspect a profile is fake, cyber-run for the hills.
  • Link up with profiles of only people you know.
  • Be leery of interacting with members you don’t know even if they appear to be part of the network of someone you do know.
  • If you get a job offer through LinkedIn, don’t respond via that conduit. Instead contact directly the employer for verification.
  • For employers: Have you instructed your employees in proper use of the LinkedIn system? Are you sure they are not abusing it (either intentionally or non-intentionally), which could put your company at risk?

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Beware of these 10 Job Hunting Scams

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Just because a job recruiter says he’s from (fill in blank—any huge corporation) doesn’t mean the job can’t be a scam. Anyone could say they’re from Microsoft or Google. Impersonating a representative from a big-name company is one way to fool gullible job seekers.

9DAnother way is to advertise the scam jobs on radio because the scammer knows that listeners will think, “It has to be legit if it’s on the radio.” Scammers will post their job ads anywhere.

An article on consumer.ftc.gov lists the following signs of a fraudulent job advertisement:

  • There are plenty of totally legitimate jobs that involve money out of your pocket. And in some cases, this may be described as an application fee, reference check fee, background check, cost of training materials or anything else. Only pay when the site itself has been vetted by you and everyone else. Do your research!
  • The ad talks of “previously undisclosed” federal government positions. The scammer is banking that you have no idea that usajobs.gov lists all federal job openings to the public.
  • They want your bank account or credit card information. Be very aware.

Similarly, scammers may prey on people seeking a job placement service. The consumer.ftc.gov names the following red flags:

  1. Fictitious jobs are promoted.
  2. Payment is made but no job materializes—and the service suddenly falls off the radar.
  3. If the ad mentions a company, contact that company to verify they’re contracted with the job placement service before you make your next move.
  4. Never make major decisions without first getting everything in writing: cost, what it gets you, etc.
  5. Ask them what happens if they can’t place you in a compatible position. Then listen good. If the response doesn’t make sense or is vague, move on. If they assure you you’ll get a refund within a certain period of time, make sure this is in writing.
  6. But if you decide to go with them, read your contract word for word. If they show impatience with this, it’s a red flag.
  7. Beware of ads that sound like job openings, but actually are just worded to sound that way. These semi-scammers want you to pay them to give you information you can easily find online. A classic example is an ad for writing jobs. It’s worded to sound like the ad placer can connect you with clients—whom they are working for—who need a writer. Instead you’ll be paying for a list of freelance markets, such as some boating magazine seeking submissions—when you specialize in a completely unrelated niche.
  8. Make sure you know precisely what you’re getting into. Are you seeking help with job placement or looking for someone to construct your resume?
  9. See what the BBB says about the company and what a Google search pulls up.
  10. Just because you have to pay doesn’t mean it’s a scam. However…ask yourself why you need to pay someone thousands of dollars to find you a job, what with all the online (and legitimate) job postings and the ability to blast out hundreds of e-mail queries in just a few days with your resume attached?

By keeping your scam radar on high during a job search, job seekers can prevent their personal information and financial data pout of the hands of criminals.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

Ransomware Scammers get the Big Bucks

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It sounds almost like science fiction, even in this cyber age: A thief hacks into your computer and encrypts your files, meaning, scrambles the information so you can’t make sense of any of it. He demands you pay him a big fat payment to “unlock” the encryption or to give you the “key,” which is contained on the thief’s remote server.

10DYou are being held ransom. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has sent out a warning to both the common Internet user and businesspeople about this ransomware, says an article on arstechnica.com.

And if you think this is one helluva dirty trick, it can be worse: The thief gets your payment, but you don’t get the cyber key.

The article says that the biggest ransomware threat is the CryptoWall. The FBI’s IC3 has received reports from 992 victims of this ransomware, but it’s estimated that there are many more victims who have not notified the IC3 (would you or your friends necessarily know to do this?) and instead just paid the ransom—or didn’t, resigning to never being able to access their files again.

In addition to the ransom cost, there are also the costs associated with cleaning up the mess, and the fallout especially hits businesses, because they suffer lost productivity and having to pay IT services.

The arstechnica.com article quotes Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, a security training company: “CryptoWall 3.0 is the most advanced crypto-ransom malware at the moment.”

According to the IC3, there are $18 million in losses associated with CryptoWall, but remember, that’s only what has been reported. Many businesses do not notify the FBI of breaches: the ransom payment as well as the heavy cost of impaired productivity.

How does an individual or business avoid getting sucked into this trap? The FBI offers the following recommendations:

  • Back up all of your data on a regular basis.
  • Protect all of your devices with antivirus software and a firewall—from reputable companies.
  • Keep your security software updated.
  • Clicking on a malicious website could download ransomware; therefore, you should enable pop-up blockers that will prevent these dangerous clicks.
  • Do not visit suspicious websites.
  • Avoid clicking on links inside e-mails.
  • Protect your WiFi connection. A criminal can insert a virus on your device while on unencrypted WiFi. Use a VPN, a virtual private network encrypts your data over free WiFi.
  • Avoid opening attachments that come from strangers or people for whom it would be out of character for them to send you an attachment or who’d have absolutely no reason to. This includes the IRS, UPS, Microsoft, Walmart, etc.
  • CryptoWall can still make its way into your device if you’ve clicked on a malicious ad that’s on a legitimate website, says the arstechnica.com article. Here is where an updated antivirus software program would come into play to detect the malware.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

Trusting too much brings Trouble

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There will always be the person who lives on the Equator to whom you can sell an electric heater. As they say, there is a sucker born every minute.

12DThis is why cyber criminals will always have a field day, like the crook who posed as a tax man who got an elderly couple to send $100,000 to an offshore bank account after he tricked them.

This was a fear-based scam. The other two categories are compassion and self-interest. And just because a person can’t be frightened doesn’t mean that their heart strings can’t be tugged by a charity scam.

Elderly people and those with low income are more likely to be tricked. Other people…well, you just have to wonder what’s between their ears.

For example, the popular Microsoft scam involves a person calling the victim to tell them that their computer has a virus. The caller is a crook who wants to convince the victim to allow him remote access to the computer. Don’t the victims ever wonder how the heck Microsoft would even know their computer had a virus? Red flag, anyone?

Some say ask the caller for their number so you can call back–they’ll probably hang up. Probably. The scammer may have a number in place just to cover this possibility. Really, just hang up. It’s a scam.

Some people will just keep giving money out, again and again, to the same scammer; it’s not always a flash-in-the-pan payout. What compels them to behave this way? Perhaps it’s to continually convince themselves that they’re not dumb enough to be scammed.

Another way cons trap people is by asking for small amounts of money first; this lowers the victim’s guard.

More Popular Scams

  • Charity. These can range from natural disaster relief to donations for made-up charities, or those with names very similar to well-known ones.
  • Rental. The crook sends the landlord an overpayment by check of the first month’s rent before living there, then tells the landlord to wire back the difference. The check bounces.
  • IRS: Always hang up on callers identifying themselves as tax people claiming you underpaid or are owed a refund, even if the caller ID says “IRS.”

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.